Researcher Links OpenAI Agents to 16,000 Scans of UN Data Portal

An independent researcher linked more than 16,000 scans of a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development statistics portal to agents likely operated by OpenAI, The Wall Street Journal reports. The activity ran from April 13 to June 19 and targeted public data on UNCTADstat, including the Productive Capacities Index.

The agents tested fields in the portal's API to locate working endpoints. They used a public key included in requests from the UNCTADstat data viewer.

The agents also used urlquery.net and Base64 encoded forms hosted through the httpbin testing service to submit requests. Later attempts double encoded the Facts endpoint and used a Google cross site scripting learning tool to retrieve data after other requests were blocked.

UNCTADstat rate limited 82 requests, but the activity continued. OpenAI is reviewing the findings and offered the UN a briefing on that review.